Three Strikes, You're Out!
by Leeeannnaaa
Summary: When Jenny finds Nate with another girl at her prom, this counts as the third time he's cheated on her.  After three strikes will he be out? Or do bad things always come in threes?


AN: This is my first Nate/Jenny fic. I hope you like it!

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><p>You push open the large, heavy double doors that lead you to the outside of the hotel. You feel the cool night air of October hit your skin and you step out onto the middle of the wide pavement of the sidewalk.<p>

Looking at your surroundings left, then right, then left again, you turn on your heels and then run to your left, hitching up the material of your blue prom dress as you do, the noise of your silver heels colliding with the sidewalk. You feel tears spill over your eyes and drip down your cheeks, smudging mascara along your face. It dries quickly as the night air hits it.

You reach the curb and press the 'walk' button on the pole next to you and wait for the traffic to reach a red light, enabling you to cross the road. You take the time to lean against the pole with one hand as with the other, you remove your shoes from your feet and place them onto the cool pavement. They feel relieved to be out of such uncomfortable shoes.

When the 'walk' light turns green, you cross the road and as you continue walking away from the hotel, you hear your name being called. "Jenny," a familiar voice calls to you urgently from behind. "Jenny, please. Just wait, I can explain everything."

You continue walking ahead and you shut your eyes tightly, hoping for no more tears to fall. You turn around to catch a glimpse of the figure calling your name. He is caught at the curb, waiting for the lights to change again.

The few people roaming the streets turn to look at you as you hurry by each time your name is shouted across the neighbourhood. You continue along the path and to your distaste, begin to hear hurried footsteps behind you, getting louder and closer each second.

"Jenny, Stop. Let me explain." The tall, handsome teenager stops you in your tracks as he stands infront of you, cutting you off. He places his hands on your arms and turns you to face him, but you push your palms against his chest in an attempt to move him away from you, in order to get around him.

His hands are on your arms again and this time, they're firmer. "Look at me, Jenny." You avoid his gaze and he shakes your shoulders in attempt to get your attention. You notice the warm temperature of his hands against your cold skin. You're jealous that he's wearing a fitted, warm black suit and your only clothing item is a strapless prom dress.

_If he was a decent date,_ you think to yourself, _he would have given you his jacket to wear._

"Jenny, please." He begs you, his voice cracks. "Look at me. Let me explain."

You give in and look into his lightning blue eyes, which you notice are glossed over with tears. "Why should I, Nate?" You speak unsympathetically and he shuts his eyes in hurt. You don't care, you're hurting much more than he is at the moment. "What could there possibly be to explain?" he opens his eyes and looks right into yours. You see hurt behind his eyes and he looks like he's trying to hold back from crying.

"I don't know what came over me, Jen." He whispers while rubbing his forehead with his hand. "I didn't mean it. It didn't mean anything. God, what was I thinking?" he curses at himself, but you've heard it all before.

"You know, Nate, you've said that to me so many times before. Trust me, it gets less believable each one." You shove his hand from your shoulder and turn away from him. You hear him sigh as you begin to walk away.

You walk a reasonable distance from him and are satisfied that he's decided to give up on chasing you when you hear his footsteps running behind you.

"Nate, have you ever heard the saying 'three strikes, you're out'?" You question him as he cuts you off again. He tries to grab hold of your hands but you shake them out of his grasp.

"Can't we just talk about this? I only need one more chance!" A tear has spilt over from his eyes and is slowly falling down his cheek.

"Nate, I don't think that there's anything here to talk about. This is the third time that I've caught you kissing someone other than me in the two months we've been together." It hurt to say it out loud, and it makes you feel like a fool for letting him get away with it the first two times.

"But those kisses didn't mean anything, Jenny." He pleads with you. He knows you don't want to hear it. "I don't know what comes over me for them to keep happening, but they mean _nothing_ to me." He emphasizes his words when he says _nothing_. "And you mean everything to me."

"Well then why do I keep finding myself having this conversation with you, Nate? I can't seem to figure out why you keep kissing people in public, for me and the whole rest of the world to see, then telling me it means nothing, then letting it happen again. Am I just stupid?" It's a rhetorical question, but he answers you anyway.

"No, Jen. Of course you're not stupid. Why do you say things like that?" You notice that he's trying to change the subject.

"Because I can't seem to figure out why this keeps happening." You speak harshly to him, because he makes you feel so naïve for believing him for all of this time. "The first time I saw it happen was early on in our relationship and I figured maybe you felt some feeling you used to feel for Serena and got caught up in a moment. I guess I thought it was a one-off." He's shaking his head at you, he knows what you're getting at, but given that you had to watch him kiss other people, you decide he can listen to you speak.

"The second one, you were drunk. _Hell_, you were more than drunk, Nate. You were _wasted_. I kept trying to get you to stop drinking, but you were stronger than me, and you just pushed me away. I finally got you away from the bar and into a booth. I told you to stay there, I just had to go to the bathroom. And when I came back, your tongue was down some girl's throat." You're ranting to him, and although he's aware of this fact as you pour out your heart and frustration to him, he listens to you. It's probably only because you're not giving him a chance to get a word out.

"I don't know why I forgave you for that. You didn't even know that girl. And after the first time, I should have been more careful. I should have thought about it more, but I didn't, I just forgave you. And when people asked why, I just said that you were drunk and didn't know what you were doing." You shake your head, realizing how stupid you've been to keep taking him back. You're so hurt, so angry with him, and somehow, you still want to forgive him.

"And now, here we are again. The third strike." You feel yourself getting choked up, and you swallow hard. "We were at my prom, Nate. _My senior prom_. The most fun event of my senior year. And we took pictures together, we danced together, and everything was fine. I was enjoying it so much. And so was everyone else." Your vision starts to blur with tears, so you shut your eyes tightly, willing for them to go away.

"Then I came back. I left you to talk with some of the people you knew, guys who went to St. Judes with you. And when I come back, you're making out with another girl. God knows who she was, whether you know her name or not," you open your eyes and look up at him. "But I don't really care, Nate." You sniffle and wipe your face from the few tears that managed to slip out. "I'm sick of this. This is the third time, Nate. It's going to be the last."

"Jenny, no. I need you." He says surely. He lifts his hand to your face and makes you look at him. "I need you, _I love you._"

"You can't love me too much if you keep doing this to me!" You move his hand away from your face roughly and push him away from you. He's really frustrated you by telling you this.

"What am I, Nate? What am I to you?" He looks at you, unsure of what you're asking and how to answer, so you elaborate. "Everytime I think I have you, I think that you're mine and that I can finally have you to myself, you end up with someone else. Am I just a distraction to you, or a rebound or something?"

He shakes his head and looks at you sadly. "That's not true, Jenny. I love you. I just keep making stupid mistakes like this. Let me make this better. Let me prove it to you."

"I don't think you can prove it to me, Nate. I think that between all these girlfriends and people you're with, Serena, Blair, Vanessa, Serena again, and God knows who else, I always just seem to fall in-between. There'll always be someone else around. Another girl. I don't want to be your distraction anymore, Nate."

You push his hands away from you and walk away from him. He doesn't follow you.

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><p>You find yourself at the park. After walking around the city thinking, crying and rejecting Nate's calls, now you're on a swing in the playground at the park. You remember coming here once with Nate, probably about a year ago.<p>

"_This is where I come to think. When I don't want to be at home or with anyone else," you told him._

The only problem is that you can't think properly. The only thing on your mind is Nate and how much he hurt you. And how much you want to give him another chance so that you can run towards him and press your head into his chest as he wraps his arms around you.

But you can't, because you know what will end up happening in the end, and you can't waste your time with Nate anymore. Your thoughts are interrupted when your phone vibrates, indicating that you have a text message. Knowing it'll be from Nate, you open it, curious about what he has to say and why he's decided to text you instead of calling again.

_Congratulations, J. You're the prom queen!  
>Hope everything worked out between You and Nate. Xx<em>

You check the sender of the text, assuming that this message probably isn't from Nate. It's from one of your friends, Ashley. The clock on your mobile reads 11.03PM. You presume that they have just announced this to the students at the prom.

_Who was chosen as my King?_

You text her back, wondering if the student body elected you a decent partner.

_LOL! Who do you think was chosen as King?_

You didn't think it was funny, and you guess that she was being sarcastic. You decide not to reply, instead thinking of all the possible Prom Kings that could have been elected.

You're numb to the cold air that hits your body as you swing back and forth on the children's playground. As the movement blows your hair around your face, your thoughts drift from the Prom Kings to Nate again. Sighing, you look down at yourself, your big dress sticking out from either side of the swing's seat and your bare feet, your silver heels to the side of the swing set.

_Some prom this was_, you think to yourself.

As you look back up from your lap, you notice a figure walking towards you. You begin to panic, it's pretty dark out and there aren't a lot of people around. You hold your phone to your ear, pretending to call someone, making it obvious that you have a mobile on you to the mysterious figure. You look back towards the figure and notice a silver shine coming from it's head. You watch as the figure continues to come closer, and find that an additional silver shine is coming from either hand of the figure.

You focus your eyes on the figure and notice that the silver item on its head is a crown. You become aware that the figure is a man, dressed darkly and he looks vaguely familiar. You wait until the figure is much closer to take another look.

The first thing you notice about the figure is that he's dressed in a suit.

_The second thing you notice?_ The figure is Nate.

He's holding a staff in his right hand and in his left, a tiara. He stops in front of you and squats, placing his hands on your knees. You have no idea what to say or do, so you just look at him, waiting for him to do something. _How did he find you here? And why is he here?_

"Congratulations. We're prom royalty." He places the tiara on your head gently and kisses your forehead. _So now you know who your King is._

"Nate, I can't do this again." You talk to him honestly. "I just can't."

"You weren't a distraction for me, Jenny. You weren't. All of those other girls were a distraction from _you_." You look at his eyes and he seems to be sincere. You still don't believe him.

"How do I know you're not just lying to me?"

"Because I'm not, Jen. I mean it. All those girls I was with, and Blair, Vanessa, Serena… they were all in the picture because I was trying to get my mind off of you." You look at him, encouraging him to elaborate. "Ever since Serena came back, everything went downhill. And then I kissed you at the ball, I thought you were Serena, but since then, so much has happened, and I still can't help thinking that maybe that kiss was meant to happen after all." He looks at you with a cheesy smile on his face, then continues.

"Then I moved in with you guys for awhile, and I knew there was an age gap between us, but I went for it. I went for you. But then Dan found out and he got mad. He threw me out. I wrote you that letter, and I know you didn't end up getting it, but I thought that maybe that was a sign that we shouldn't be together. And that we wouldn't end up together."

He takes a deep breath. "But I never stopped regretting it. I never stopped thinking about you. But I knew Dan wasn't happy with it. So I dated all of those other people, because I thought that somehow, I could forget about you. That I would get over you. But I couldn't. I kept you bottled inside, so in-between all of those girls, I kept coming back to you. And then I remembered why I left you. So the process would repeat. Over and over. But Jenny, you were always the only one who kept floating around my mind. The only one whose name and voice kept coming back. They were all distractions from you."

"So what about now, Nate?"

"I don't know, it's so stupid. I guess that when I'm reminded of Dan and how much he cares about you, how much I know he will want to kill me if I hurt you, I get worried. So I find a girl who doesn't have a big brother waiting for me, even though it hurts you more, and gives Dan more ammunition everytime I do it, and make out with them. And I don't feel anything for them, so I don't think about them or regret not having them after. I only regret making stupid mistakes that drive you away. And I regret making them so many times and never learning from it."

He takes a deep breath and looks back up at you, his eyes hopeful. "So, _three strikes, you're out?_ No, I don't think so, Jenny. I think _bad things come in threes_. Which means that after this, if you can give me one more chance, the bad things are over. If you can give me one more shot, then I promise you that things will be different this time. The three bad things have happened now, so only the good stuff is left." He looks at you, waiting for a response. You struggle to find words to speak to him.

"I don't know." Your heart is telling to you to forgive him and take him back. But your head is telling you to move on and avoid another potential heartbreak.

"Go with what your heart is telling you, Jenny. If I went with my heart and not my head, we would've never been in this situation. Your heart always knows what's right." It sounds like he's quoted a fairytale, but it sound so true.

So, to match his fairytale quote, you pull him towards you and place your lips on his in a soft, sweet kiss. He holds out his hand and you take it, standing up from the swing's seat. He hands you his staff and picks up your shoes from the playground floor, then begins to walk you home, hand-in-hand. Before you cross the road from the park, he drapes his suit jacket over your shoulders.

Now he's proven himself as a decent date and for a final chance. And although you missed out on most of the prom at the hotel, he's given you the best prom night ever. _At least one to remember, anyway._

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><p>Sooooo, did you like it?<p>

I love Nate and Jenny together, so I felt that it was necessary to write a fanfic on them, even if it's not very good. It's too bad that I only watch the TV show, though, I'd love to read the books but I'm scared that it'll change the way I think of these two as a couple.

ANYWAY, please tell me what you thought of it in a review. Criticism is appreciated as long as it is constructive.

Thanks for reading! - Lee :D


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